{"id":5909,"date":"2015-02-24T12:06:21","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T19:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/?p=5909"},"modified":"2023-03-03T01:14:22","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T08:14:22","slug":"qatar-the-friend-of-our-enemy-is-not-our-friend-questions-about-the-alliance-against-isis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=5909","title":{"rendered":"Qatar: the friend of our enemy is not our friend. New questions raised on the anti-ISIS Alliance."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Qatar%3A%20the%20friend%20of%20our%20enemy%20is%20not%20our%20friend.%20New%20questions%20raised%20on%20the%20anti-ISIS%20Alliance.\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/jihadi-john-the-islamic-state-killer-behind-the-mask-is-a-young-londoner\/2015\/02\/25\/d6dbab16-bc43-11e4-bdfa-b8e8f594e6ee_story.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6122\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-27 at 3.06.04 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-27-at-3.06.04-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"316\" height=\"261\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-27-at-3.06.04-PM.png 439w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-27-at-3.06.04-PM-300x247.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px\" \/><\/a>By Peter Lance\u00a0\u00a9 Updated Feb. 27th, 2015.<\/strong> With increasing questions about the commitment of certain Arab nations in the Alliance vs. The Islamic State (ISIS) recently underscored by the<a title=\"NYT Saudis 2.4.15\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/02\/05\/world\/middleeast\/pre-9-11-ties-haunt-saudis-as-new-accusations-surface.html?_r=1\">\u00a0<strong>NYT<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0re: Saudi Arabia&#8217;s murky links to the 9\/11 attacks, it&#8217;s even more important to shed light on Qatar, the most strategic Alliance member which is home to Udein Air Base where the <a title=\"Centcom\" href=\"http:\/\/www.centcom.mil\"><strong>U.S. Central Command<\/strong><\/a> launches many of its bombing missions on ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview aired today<a title=\"Amanpour\" href=\"http:\/\/amanpour.blogs.cnn.com\/2014\/09\/25\/exclusive-qatars-emir-we-dont-fund-terrorists\/\"><strong> on CNN<\/strong><\/a> Qatar&#8217;s Emir <a title=\"Wiki\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tamim_bin_Hamad_Al_Thani\"><strong>Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Than<\/strong><\/a>i told <a title=\"Wiki bio\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christiane_Amanpour\"><strong>Christiane Amanpour<\/strong><\/a>, &#8220;I know that America and some countries they look at some movements as terrorist movements\u2026 But there are differences.&#8221; It would be a &#8220;big mistake,&#8221; he said to view every Islamic movement as terrorists.<\/p>\n<p>Later today on a panel with <a title=\"Wiki\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wolf_Blitzer\"><strong>Wolf Blitzer,<\/strong><\/a> former CIA case officer \u00a0<a title=\"Robert Baer Wiki\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robert_Baer\"><strong>Robert Baer<\/strong><\/a> (quoted below) reminded viewers that Qatar not only <em>employed<\/em> 9\/11 &#8220;mastermind&#8221; <strong><a title=\"KSM history commons\" href=\"http:\/\/www.historycommons.org\/timeline.jsp?other_al-qaeda_operatives=khalidShaikMohammed&amp;timeline=complete_911_timeline\">Khalid Shaikh Mohammed<\/a>\u00a0(KSM)<\/strong>, but has regularly funded the pro-jihadist <a title=\"history\" href=\"http:\/\/www.historycommons.org\/entity.jsp?entity=muslim_brotherhood\"><strong>Muslim Brotherhood<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Qatar is also the Alliance member that accepted the five detainees from Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, dubbed &#8220;The Taliban Five,&#8221; exchanged \u00a0for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May. <a title=\"Taliban five CNN swap\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2014\/05\/31\/us\/bergdahl-transferred-guantanamo-detainees\/\"><strong>As CNN reported<\/strong><\/a>, the swap had been brokered by the Qatari government and the five jailed jihadis were described at the time as &#8220;mid to high level officials of the Taliban regime.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Al-thani op ed\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/02\/24\/opinion\/qatars-message-to-obama.html?_r=0\"><strong>In an OP-ED piece in today&#8217;s NYT<\/strong> <\/a>timed to his visit with President Obama, Al-Thani blamed terrorism &#8220;on\u00a0the kind of hopelessness that abounds in the Syrian and Palestinian refugee camps, and in war-weary towns and villages in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Gaza.&#8221; That from the head of an oil-rich nation with the highest per capita income in the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Taliban-Five.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-5983\" title=\"Taliban Five\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Taliban-Five.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"146\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Taliban-Five.png 666w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Taliban-Five-300x90.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Qatar World Cup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/0\/football\/31600194\"><strong>Qatar, which Fifa just\u00a0announced\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>will host the World Cup in the fall of 2022, is\u00a0also the headquarters of the Al Jazeera Media Network and since 2002 it&#8217;s been host country to CENTCOM, nerve center of all U.S. military operations in the Middle East. That is a curious irony when one considers the pro-jihadi loyalties of Qatar&#8217;s ruling al-Thani monarchy.<\/p>\n<p>On October 10th, 2014,\u00a0<a title=\"WSJ\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/u-s-qatar-alliance-strains-coalition-against-islamic-state-1412983181\"><strong>the WSJ reported<\/strong><\/a> on &#8220;Qatar&#8217;s links with the main al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, Nusra Front, as well as with Hamas and the Taliban in Afghanistan.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Three weeks later <strong><a title=\"Telegraph UK\" href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/islamic-state\/11233407\/Terror-financiers-are-living-freely-in-Qatar-US-discloses.html\">The Telegraph U.K. <\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>quoted David Cohen, the U.S. Treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence as disclosing that, &#8220;Two of al-Qaeda\u2019s most senior financiers are living with impunity in Qatar despite being on a worldwide terrorism blacklist.&#8221;\u00a0The two Qataris \u2014\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/middleeast\/syria\/11140190\/Banker-who-financed-911-mastermind-now-funding-terrorists-in-Syria-and-Iraq.html\">Khalifa Muhammad Turki al-Subaiy and Abd al-Rahman bin Umayr al-Nuaymi\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 are living in Doha, the country\u2019s capital, and are free to go as they please,&#8221; Telegraph Chief Reporter\u00a0<a title=\"Robert Mendick\" href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/journalists\/robert-mendick\/\"><strong>Robert Mendick<\/strong><\/a> wrote, quoting Cohen.<\/p>\n<p>In late January CNN&#8217;s Pentagon correspondent <a title=\"CNN Barbara Starr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.weeklystandard.com\/blogs\/cnn-1-taliban-5-back-game_830990.html\"><strong>Barbara Starr<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0cited military and intelligence sources who claimed that &#8220;one member of the so-called Taliban Five &#8216;has attempted to return to militant activity from his current location in Qatar.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But those recent disclosures\u00a0<em>pale<\/em> when one considers the monarchy&#8217;s even deeper links to al Qaeda and its prior role in protecting KSM. In 1996 the regime in Doha, not only welcomed <a title=\"OBL history commons\" href=\"http:\/\/www.historycommons.org\/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&amp;other_al-qaeda_operatives=osamaBinLaden\"><strong>Osama bin Laden<\/strong><\/a> on his flight from Khartoum to Afghanistan, but they sheltered KSM that same year.<\/p>\n<p>Worse, after the FBI got a tip from a sting of KSM&#8217;s nephew, World Trade Center bomb maker\u00a0<a title=\"History Commons\" href=\"http:\/\/www.historycommons.org\/entity.jsp?entity=ramzi_yousef\"><strong>Ramzi Yousef<\/strong> <\/a>\u00a0and sent the elite Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) to the Qatari capital to grab Mohammed, the al-Thani government reportedly helped him escape.<\/p>\n<p>In my 2004 HarperCollins investigative book:<a title=\"Cover Up\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Cover-Up-Peter-Lance-ebook\/dp\/B000UMVN1I\/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1423260593&amp;sr=8-9&amp;keywords=%22Peter+Lance%22\"><strong> &#8220;Cover UP: What The Government Is still Hiding About the War on Terror,&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> I told the story of that FBI sting for the first time. It took place over an 11 month period at the MCC: The Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan, during which Colombo crime family capo <a title=\"Greg Jr.\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=682\"><strong>Gregory Scarpa Jr.<\/strong><\/a>; son of notorious <a title=\"Deal Amazon\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Deal-Devil-Secret-Thirty-Year-Relationship-ebook\/dp\/B009NG0SIG\/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1423263320&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=%22Peter+Lance%22\"><strong>FBI Top Echelon Informant Gregory Sr.<\/strong><\/a>, passed dozens of notes from Yousef to the FBI, while the terrorist, later convicted of \u00a0the 1993 WTC bombing, was awaiting trial for the <strong><a title=\"Bojinka\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bojinka_plot\">Manila Airliner Bombing (Bojinka) Plot.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>The financing for that plot, which involved smuggling IED&#8217;s onto a dozen U.S. bound jumbo jets, came from bin Laden&#8217;s brother-in-law<strong><a title=\"MJK history commons\" href=\"http:\/\/www.historycommons.org\/timeline.jsp?other_al-qaeda_operatives=complete_911_timeline_mohammed_jamal_khalifa&amp;timeline=complete_911_timeline\"> Mohammed Jamal Khalifa<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-1.29.49-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5910\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 1.29.49 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-1.29.49-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"257\" height=\"152\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Yousef-Scarpa Treasure Trove\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=552\"><strong>This piece on my website<\/strong> <\/a>allows access to dozens of FBI 302 memos memorializing that sting, in which the FBI went so far as to set up a phony Mafia company called &#8220;Roma Corp,&#8221; to which Yousef made phone calls from the 9th floor tier at the jail that were intercepted by the Bureau and &#8220;patched-through&#8221; to Yousef&#8217;s contacts in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>It was during one such call that the FBI&#8217;s Organized Crime and Terrorism Unit in the SDNY identified KSM&#8217;s presence in Doha and dispatched the snatch and grab team, only to find that Mohammed had been given a false I.D. by the Qataris and moved to the Czech Republic. Five years later he&#8217;d lead the &#8220;planes as missiles&#8221; plot, <a title=\"Dan RATHER on 1000 Years\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=391\"><strong>designed by Yousef in Manila in 1995<\/strong><\/a> and bring down The Towers on September 11th.<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.13.34-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5911\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 2.13.34 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.13.34-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"266\" height=\"130\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>THE BACKGROUND ON QATAR<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">What follows is an excerpt from my third book for HarperCollins,<a title=\"Triple Cross\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Triple-Cross-Ladens-Master-Penetrated-ebook\/dp\/B003JBHVLS\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1423260886&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=%22Peter+Lance%22\"><strong> &#8220;Triple Cross.&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> It begins with a brief discussion of Sphinx Trading, a check-cashing mailbox store in New Jersey where two of the 9\/11 hijackers got their fake I.D.&#8217;s (to board AA #77) in the summer of 2001. The FBI had been onto that store for years, but failed to surveil it, even though it was linked to the 1990 murder of <a title=\"first blood\" href=\"http:\/\/tabletmag.com\/jewish-news-and-politics\/44243\/first-blood\"><strong>Rabbi Meir Kahane<\/strong> <\/a>by El Sayyid Nosair, an al Qaeda terrorist who had been on the Bureau&#8217;s radar since the summer of 1989. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/PLfbi.htm\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5913\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 2.22.09 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.22.09-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"471\" height=\"263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.22.09-PM.png 471w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.22.09-PM-300x167.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 471px) 100vw, 471px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong> \u00a0If the Feds had acted on that intelligence and gone into their files from the Kahane murder case, they might have remembered that El Sayyid Nosair had maintained a mailbox at Sphinx Trading, a Jersey City check cashing store on Kennedy Boulevard, four doors down from the blind Sheikh\u2019s mosque.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn1\">[i]<\/a> They might have connected that dot to the man who was one of the two incorporators of Sphinx: one Waleed Abdu Al-Noor; listed by <a title=\"Fitzgerald NY Mag\" href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/news\/intelligencer\/57196\/\">Patrick Fitzgerald<\/a> and Andrew McCarthy as one of the <a title=\"172\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/172_unindicted_co-conspirators_Day_of_Terror.pdf\">172 unindicted co-conspirators<\/a> in the Day of Terror Trial, prosecuted the year before.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn2\">[ii]<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps the knowledge that Ramzi Yousef maintained an active al Qaeda cell in New York City in 1996 might have caused the FBI to undertake an ongoing surveillance of Sphinx Trading and its mailbox center. If they had, then five years later, in the summer of 2001, Bureau agents could have interdicted two of the 9\/11 hijackers, <a title=\"al Midhar &amp; al-Hazmi\" href=\"http:\/\/www.historycommons.org\/essay.jsp?article=essaykhalidandnawaf\">Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi<\/a>, who obtained their fake IDs for the hijacking plot from Mohammed El-Atriss, the Egyptian who co-signed the <a title=\"Sphinx C of I\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/Sphinx_Certif_of%20_Incorp%2012.15.87.jpg\">incorporation papers<\/a> on Sphinx Trading with Al-Noor.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-1.32.34-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5912\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 1.32.34 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-1.32.34-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"304\" height=\"187\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-1.32.34-PM.png 304w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-1.32.34-PM-300x184.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Phone records showed that El-Atriss had also been in regular phone contact that summer with <a title=\"Hani Hanjour\" href=\"http:\/\/www.historycommons.org\/entity.jsp?entity=hani_hanjour\">Hani Hanjour,<\/a> the pilot who flew AA Flight 77 into the Pentagon. It\u2019s important to note that the Yousef intelligence gathered by Scarpa Jr., if properly pursued, would have advanced the FBI\u2019s knowledge of the al Qaeda threat to New York exponentially.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By late May 1996, Scarpa Jr. had also uncovered Yousef\u2019s threats to a federal judge and to Mike Garcia, the AUSA who was co-prosecutor in his upcoming Bojinka case.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn3\">[iii]<\/a> The Feds took these threats seriously enough that they sought protection for both individuals. By April, the quality of the Yousef intel was so good that the FBI decided to take the intelligence initiative to a new level, They actually went to the trouble and expense of setting up a phony Mafia front company, dubbed \u201cRoma Corporation,\u201d designed to monitor Yousef\u2019s outside calls.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ostensibly located in the Flatiron Building at Twenty-third Street and Fifth Avenue, in theory Roma Corp. was an ingenious trap. \u201cThe idea was to create a fictitious company that was supposedly a Mafia-run organization,\u201d says Scarpa Jr.&#8217;s then lawyer Larry Silverman. \u201cYousef would make calls to that organization. They would then transfer his telephone calls to parties outside of the United States, and the FBI would be able to listen into those calls, record them, and, of course, make use of the information.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Scarpa Jr. gave Yousef the Roma office number, and conned him into believing that the operation was run by Mafiosi, when in fact FBI agents manned the phones Yousef was allowed to make calls to the front company from the pay phone on the ninth floor tier of the MCC. The Feds would then patch the calls through to s his \u201cpeople\u201d<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn4\">[iv]<\/a> in New York and abroad.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn5\">[v]<\/a> Thanks to the FBI, Scarpa Jr. even supplied Yousef with a fax number at Roma.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.24.56-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5914\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 2.24.56 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.24.56-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.24.56-PM.png 474w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.24.56-PM-300x239.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to describe what a bonanza of intelligence this was for the Bureau,\u201d says a former agent now retired from the NYO. \u201cThis was raw data, coming directly from bin Laden\u2019s chief bomb maker, who we would later learn played a key role in designing the 9\/11 plot.\u201d<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn6\">[vi]<\/a> The Roma Corp. patch-through would soon hand the agents of the FBI\u2019s NYO a second chance to nab Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Yousef\u2019s uncle, who was now working out the details of the 9\/11 plot in Doha, Qatar.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>LOSING \u201cTHE MASTERMIND\u201d AGAIN\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Congressional Joint Inquiry<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn7\">[vii]<\/a> would eventually reveal that at least one call from the FBI patch-through went from Yousef to KSM, the fourth Bojinka conspirator still on the loose.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are several accounts of how Yousef\u2019s uncle was located in Qatar:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2022 In <em>Perfect Soldiers<\/em>, Terry McDermott\u2019s riveting book on KSM and the 9\/11 hijackers, which first appeared as a series in the<em> Los Angeles Times,<\/em> he writes that Mohammed\u2019s brother had gone to a university in the Qatari capital, where he had formed a network of social clubs. His brother\u2019s charitable work \u201capparently helped Mohammed settle quickly into Qatar society,\u201d<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn8\">[viii]<\/a> McDermott writes, describing KSM as \u201ca kind of happy networker\u201d who lived a \u201cvery public lifestyle\u201d that \u201ccaught up with him in 1996.\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.28.21-PM1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5920\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 2.28.21 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.28.21-PM1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"283\" height=\"212\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2022 In his book <em>Ghost Wars<\/em>, former <em>Washington Post<\/em> managing editor Steve Coll (now Dean of The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism) writes that \u201cThe FBI had been on the lookout for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, when, after Yousef\u2019s arrest, investigators discovered a $660 financial wire transfer by Mohammed from Qatar to New York to aid the World Trade Center bombers.\u201d After that, \u201cthe CIA received evidence that Mohammed was hiding in Qatar.\u201d<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn9\">[ix]<\/a> KSM was reportedly then tracked to the Doha water department, where he was working as an engineer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2022 In <em>Breakdown,<\/em> his account of U.S. failures leading up to 9\/11, <em>Washington Times<\/em> Reporter Bill Gertz attributes the KSM tip-off to former CIA operative Robert Baer.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn10\">[x]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 One major revelation which \u00a0Baer, cited in his gripping memoir <em>See No Evil,<\/em> was that while he was hiding out in Qatar, KSM was in a cell that included Shawqi Islambuli, the brother of the EIJ fanatic who assassinated Anwar Sadat \u2013 reinforcing the tight connections between Yousef\u2019s uncle and a man tied to the same Egyptian Islamic Jihad cell associated with al Qaeda spy<a title=\"Ali M\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=1703\"> Ali Mohamed.<\/a>\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn11\">[xi]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While the location of Yousef\u2019s uncle might have come from a combination of intelligence sources, it\u2019s clear now that the Roma Corp. patch through allowed the FBI to pinpoint KSM\u2019s whereabouts in Doha, then a city of 400,000 people.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Accounts differ as to what happened next.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According to famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, FBI Director Louis Freeh appealed directly to the Qatari government, sending a series of diplomatic notes, one of which reported that KSM was involved in a conspiracy to \u201cbomb U.S. airliners\u201d and was also believed to be \u201cin the process of manufacturing an explosive device.\u201d<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn12\">[xii]<\/a> That account is consistent with the plan Yousef had reported to Greg Scarpa Jr. to get one of his people to place \u201ca bomb\u201d aboard a U.S. airliner to effect a mistrial in the upcoming Bojinka case.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Brian Ross of ABC News reported that \u201cthe FBI tracked Mohammed . . . \u00a0to Doha, and was within hours of capturing him.\u201d<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn13\">[xiii]<\/a> Ross\u2019s source was Jack Cloonan, a central figure in I-49, the bin Laden squad in the FBI&#8217;s New York Office. Cloonan told Ross that \u201ca specially equipped government executive jet complete with black-out windows, was standing by to transport Mohammed.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe were prepared to fly the plane in and to take him out,\u201d said Cloonan, but \u201csomebody had leaked the information to Khalid Shaikh and he left.\u201d Ross identified the alleged collaborator as none other than <a title=\"al-Thani History Commons\" href=\"http:\/\/www.historycommons.org\/entity.jsp?entity=abdallah_bin_khalid_al-thani\">Abdallah bin Khalid al-Thani<\/a>, the Qatari Islamic Affairs minister at the time.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Robert Baer told Terry McDermott that up to four passports had been supplied for KSM\u2014the other three being for bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and Mohammed Atef.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn14\">[xiv]<\/a> Bill Gertz wrote that the FBI\u2019s HRT had been dispatched to Doha for the takedown, but were told to cool their heels in a hotel while the Qatari\u2019s \u201cput the handcuffs on\u201d KSM. Then, a day later, when the agents finally went to a safehouse where KSM had been hiding, he had already fled to the Czech Republic, using the alias Mustafa al Nasir.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AL-THANI PROCLAIMS HIS INNOCENCE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For his part, al-Thani denied any connection to the 9\/11 plot, even though in April 2006 a default judgment was entered against him in one of three September 11 cases in which he was a named defendant. On June 8, 2006, al-Thani\u2019s lawyers asked a federal judge to vacate the judgment. \u201cHe does not know why he is a defendant in this multi-district litigation,\u201d his lawyer said in a story filed by the Associated Press.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn15\">[xv]<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The lawyer contended that any action against al-Thani should have been dismissed because he is immune from prosecution and because the allegations are \u201cinsufficient to show that his actions were aimed at the U.S. or had any connection to the September 11 attacks.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According to the AP story, al-Thani has held multiple key positions in the Qatari government since 1982, including commander of the army from 1984 to 1992. In 2009 he was the Interior Minister. Ironically, for a man alleged to have helped KSM escape, his current position requires him to oversee regulation of immigration and naturalization.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.historycommons.org\/entity.jsp?entity=abdallah_bin_khalid_al-thani\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5917\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 2.35.16 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.35.16-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"237\" height=\"232\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.35.16-PM.png 237w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.35.16-PM-50x50.png 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 237px) 100vw, 237px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 2005, I conducted a lengthy interview with Bathiya Coomasuru, a Sri Lankan naturalized U.S. citizen who had served as chief aide to the nephew of the former Qatari Emir, who was deposed by his son, Crown Prince Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in a 1995 bloodless coup.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn16\">[xvi]<\/a> \u00a0Al Jazeera, the Arab broadcast network which regularly airs al Qaeda\u2019s video fatwas is located in Doha.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn17\">[xvii]<\/a> Coomasuru told me that a number of high-ranking members of the current Qatari government are al Qaeda sympathizers.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Several of them had boasted, said Coomasuru, that \u201ctheir sons had trained in al Qaeda camps.\u201d Coomasuru told me that he wasn\u2019t surprised to learn that on his escape from Khartoum, bin Laden had found safe haven in Doha. \u201cHe is revered by many of the al-Thanis,\u201d Coomasaru said.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn18\">[xviii]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The irony is that Doha, the place where the \u201cmastermind\u201d of 9\/11 hid out, is where the U.S. decided to locate the Forward Headquarters of CENTCOM, the U.S. Central Command, in preparation for the Iraqi invasion.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn19\">[xix]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Three days after U.S. forces took Baghdad in March 2003, the<em> Los Angeles Times<\/em> quoted ex CIA case officer Robert Baer as describing Abdullah bin Khalid al-Thani as a potential danger to U.S. troops. When reporters Josh Meyer and John Goetz disclosed that al-Thani had become Qatar\u2019s Interior Minister in 1997, thus putting him in charge of state security, Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar in the Clinton and Bush White Houses was stunned.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn20\">[xx]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m shocked to hear [that],\u201d Clarke said. \u201cYou\u2019re telling me that [al-Thani] is today in charge of security inside Qatar? I hope that\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If Clarke\u2014a man who was arguably one of America\u2019s keenest assesors of the al Qaeda threat\u2014was surprised by this news <em>in 2003,<\/em> how easy must it have been for Osama bin Laden\u2019s terror network to evade detection in Qatar in 1996? And worse, what potential intelligence in the Iraqi campaign may have been leaked to al Qaeda since the invasion?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Even today, \u201cCENTCOM maintains an enormous facility in Doha,\u201d says<a title=\"private war\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=103\"> Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer,<\/a> the Bronze Star winner who was a key operative in Operation Able Danger, the army\u2019s now-famous late-1990s initiative to track the al Qaeda threat.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.41.22-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5918\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 2.41.22 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.41.22-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.41.22-PM.png 198w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.41.22-PM-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-2.41.22-PM-50x50.png 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s no question that if key officials of the Qatari government are sympathetic to our enemy, the potential of undermining our fight against the [Iraqi] insurgency could be profound and the intelligence losses could be huge.\u201d<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn21\">[xxi]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>THE YOUSEF-SCARPA JR. TREASURE TROVE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Despite the loss of KSM in Doha back in 1996, as the Bojinka trial got underway \u00a0against three of his co-conspirators, Greg Scarpa Jr. was feeding FBI agents in the NYO a constant stream of intelligence from Ramzi Yousef that could have proven crucial to Patrick Fitzgerald, Jack Cloonan, and Special Agent Dan Coleman (of Squad I-49) in their ongoing effort to build a case against Osama bin Laden.<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Among the many revelations contained in the FBI 302s was a plot disclosed by Yousef in which bin Laden, whom he code-named \u201cBojinka\u201d or \u201cBojinga,\u201d would arrange the hijacking of a series of U.S. airliners in order to free the blind Sheikh, Yousef, and his Manila cohorts. That intelligence alone was considered so important that it turned up in Presidential Daily Briefings (PDBs) to Bill Clinton in 1998 and <a title=\"pdb\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bin_Ladin_Determined_To_Strike_in_US\">Bush on the eve of the 9\/11 attacks<\/a> in August 2001.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-5.01.33-PM1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5963\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 5.01.33 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-5.01.33-PM1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"501\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-5.01.33-PM1.png 501w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-06-at-5.01.33-PM1-238x300.png 238w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 501px) 100vw, 501px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The Yousef-Scarpa relationship also yielded intelligence that was relevant to ongoing al Qaeda operations.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>On June 25<sup>th<\/sup>, 1996, nineteen Americans were killed when a truck bomb ripped open the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia. The perpetrators were later identified by the FBI as Iranian Hezbollah members, but days after the bombing Yousef told Scarpa that \u201cBOJINGA\u201d (that is, bin Laden) was the \u201cmastermind.\u201d The bomb maker even boasted that he was originally tasked \u201cto check out the security measures and that a tanker truck [to deliver the bomb] was discussed at the time.\u201d<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn22\">[xxii]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In late June 2004, the 9\/11 Commission concluded that \u201cAl Qaeda . . . \u00a0may . . . have played a \u2018yet unknown role\u2019 in aiding Hezbollah militants in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers.\u201d<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn23\">[xxiii]<\/a> Keep in mind that <a title=\"Ali Mohamed\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=1703\">Ali Mohamed<\/a>, the FBI\u2019s best source on al Qaeda, had first brought together Osama bin Laden and Hezbollah leader Imad Mugniyah for a terror summit in the early 1990s.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s little doubt that if the FBI had fully utilized this intelligence that was coming out of Ramzi Yousef through Scarpa Jr. they could have connected major dots on al Qaeda\u2019s strength in the summer of 1996,\u201d says Lt. Col. Shaffer, who began investigating al Qaeda for the U.S. Special Operations Command in late 1999. \u201cAs we found, Yousef and the blind Sheikh\u2019s cell in New York were directly connected to bin Laden and the al Qaeda leadership.\u201d<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn24\">[xxiv]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But once again, just as they had with Emad Salem\u2019s infiltration of Yousef\u2019s first bombing cell, the FBI would fail to make the most of Scarpa Jr.\u2019s intelligence. \u201cThe people running this [Roma Corp.] operation really didn\u2019t have the expertise that was required,\u201d says Larry Silverman, Greg Scarpa Jr.\u2019s attorney. \u201cFrom what I knew, they had very junior agents who were not very knowledgeable in this type of operation.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The result was that the FBI wasn\u2019t able to monitor Yousef\u2019s outside calls in real time. The agent \u00a0posing as a wiseguy who was monitoring the calls spoke Arabic, but Yousef, a master of six languages, was communicating in more obscure languages like Urdu and his native Baluchi.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn25\">[xxv]<\/a> \u201cSo while they later on may have learned what was in the conversations, they really didn\u2019t learn live-time what was being spoken,\u201d says Silverman.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<hr align=\"left\" size=\"1\" width=\"33%\" \/>\n<div>\n<p><strong>ANNOTATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref1\">[i]<\/a>\u00a0 John Kifner, \u201cKahane Suspect Is A Muslim With A Series of Addresses,\u201d <em>The New York Times,<\/em> November 7<sup>th<\/sup>, 1990.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref2\">[ii]<\/a>\u00a0List of 172 unindicted co-conspirators in U.S. vs. Omar Abdel Rahman et. al. S593CR.181 (MBM).<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref3\">[iii]<\/a> Yousef handwritten notes March 27<sup>th<\/sup>-28<sup>th<\/sup>, 1996, FBI 302 September 7<sup>th<\/sup>, 1996. Memo: Angela Clemente &amp; Associaties \u201cThe Scarpa Intelligence on the Terrorist Threat: An Evaluative Report.\u201d February 20<sup>th<\/sup>, 2005.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref4\">[iv]<\/a> FBI 302 March 5<sup>th<\/sup>, 1996 page 4.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref5\">[v]<\/a> Roma Corp \u201ckite\u201d May 9<sup>th<\/sup>, 1996. Contained as an appendix in <em>Cover U<\/em>p p. 301.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref6\">[vi]<\/a> Author\u2019s interview with confidential FBI source.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref7\">[vii]<\/a> Final Declassified Report of the Joint Inquiry, July 24, 2003<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref8\">[viii]<\/a> Terry McDermott, \u201cThe Plot, How Terrorist Hatched A Simple Plan To Use Planes as Bombs,\u201d <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em>, September 1<sup>st<\/sup>, 2002.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref9\">[ix]<\/a> Ibid. Coll. <em>Ghost Wars. <\/em>p. 326.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref10\">[x]<\/a> Bill Gertz, <em>Breakdown, How America&#8217;s Intelligence Failures Led to September 11<\/em> (New York Regnery, 2002).<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref11\">[xi]<\/a> Robert Baer, <em>See No Evil<\/em> (New York, Crown, 2002).<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref12\">[xii]<\/a> Seymour Hersh, \u201cMissed Messages,\u201d <em>The New Yorker,\u201d<\/em> June 3<sup>rd<\/sup>, 2002.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref13\">[xiii]<\/a> Ibid Ross.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref14\">[xiv]<\/a> Ibid McDermott.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref15\">[xv]<\/a> \u201cQatar interior minister asks U.S. judge to scrap 9\/11 case against him,\u201d <em>Associated Press<\/em>. June 8<sup>th<\/sup>, 2006.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref16\">[xvi]<\/a>. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.qatarembassy.net\/emir.asp\">http:\/\/www.qatarembassy.net\/emir.asp<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref17\">[xvii]<\/a> \u201cAl-Jazeera by Hugh Miles: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That is Challenging the West,\u201d <em>The Denver Post.<\/em> May 26<sup>th<\/sup>, 2005<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref18\">[xviii]<\/a> Author\u2019s interview with Bathiya Coomasaru, February 6<sup>th<\/sup>, 2005.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref19\">[xix]<\/a> U.S. Department of State. Background Note: Qatar, November, 2005.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref20\">[xx]<\/a> Josh Meyer and John Goetz, &#8220;War With Iraq; Qatar&#8217;s Security Chief Suspected of Having Ties to Al Qaeda; Interior minister reportedly sheltered terrorists, including 9\/11 plotter. U.S. military campaign&#8217;s headquarters are in the Gulf nation&#8217;s capital.&#8221; <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em>, March 28, 2003.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref21\">[xxi]<\/a> Author\u2019s interview with Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, U.S. Army, June 15<sup>th<\/sup>, 2006.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref22\">[xxii]<\/a> FBI 302 interview with Greg Scarpa Jr. re: Ramzi Yousef intelligence July 2nd, 1996.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref23\">[xxiii]<\/a> Dan Eggen, \u201c9\/11 Panel Links Al Qaeda, Iran,\u201d <em>The Washington Post,<\/em> June 26, 2004.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref24\">[xxiv]<\/a> Ibid Shaffer June 15<sup>th<\/sup>, 2006.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref25\">[xxv]<\/a> Greg Smith, \u201cTerrorist Called Pals On Feds\u2019 Line,\u201d <em>New York Daily News<\/em>, September 24, 2000; Greg Smith, \u201cFBI\u2019s Chilling Terror Leads On \u201996 Tapes.\u201d <em>New York Daily News<\/em> January 21, 2002.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Qatar%3A%20the%20friend%20of%20our%20enemy%20is%20not%20our%20friend.%20New%20questions%20raised%20on%20the%20anti-ISIS%20Alliance.\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>By Peter Lance\u00a0\u00a9 Updated Feb. 27th, 2015. With increasing questions about the commitment of certain Arab nations in the Alliance vs. The Islamic State (ISIS) recently underscored by the\u00a0NYT\u00a0re: Saudi Arabia&#8217;s murky links to the 9\/11 attacks, it&#8217;s even more important to shed light on Qatar, the most strategic Alliance member which is home to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[125,144,716,122,732,714,724,729,727,741,124,736,711,1211,404,428,713,304,226,160,474,734,723,147,175,382,733,721,718,708,709,222,719,739,738,320,311,722,717,111,159,730,319,735,452,143,715,145,707,720,731,1220,737,710,177,728,317,213,726,121,725,740,1214,712],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5909"}],"version-history":[{"count":104,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16471,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5909\/revisions\/16471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}